Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, a close friend of the rabbi suspected of sexually abusing his students, told Ynet on Sunday that Elon was being backed by Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, considered the most senior Religious Zionism leader.

“We acted out of great awareness of three factors: Primarily to help the victims and prevent future cases of this nature; our obligation towards Rabbi Elon, as towards anyone who is the subject of such complaints; and the important status of Rabbi Elon in both the religious-Zionist public and Israeli society in general, his wide-ranging Torah teaching, and the many acts of kindness and charity that he did during his life."

Talking to his students at the Har Etzion Yeshiva on Wednesday, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein said, "I got a letter filled with threats from an associate of Rabbi Elon, who said he would hurt me in any way he could."

Hundreds of supporters gathered at the home of Rabbi Mordechai Elon yesterday morning to show their support for the embattled rabbi, who had been accused the day before of inappropriate sexual behavior by a forum of senior religious figures.

The crowd that assembled at Elon's home in the small community of Migdal, by Lake Kinneret, included former students and friends. Haim Cohen made the trip from Katzrin in the Golan Heights.

The Elon family, a member of the religious Zionist elite, is entrenched in the world of law, politics and halakha.

Menachem Elon studied at the Hebron Yeshiva, one of the most prestigious ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, and then studied law. His career was characterized by a combination of halakha and law, and he came to be known as an expert in Jewish law.

Police were informed about alleged misconduct by Rabbi Mordechai Elon as early as October 2006, a letter sent yesterday from Raz Nizri, senior aide to the Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, to Takana rabbinical forum director Rabbi Yehudit Shilat revealed.

Since the case of Rabbi Mordechai (Motti) Elon waspublished, Ynet has learned that other young people and parents have turned to the Takana forum claiming that they too were victims of Elon's sexual harassment.

A senior forum of rabbis shook up religious Zionist circles yesterday by accusing Rabbi Mordechai Elon of inappropriate sexual behavior. One of the rabbis in the forum said it published the statement "to protect people over whom Rabbi Elon has authority."

Rabbi Mordechai (Motti) Elon on Tuesday insisted he would keep silent in the face of allegations of inappropriate behavior made against him by a rabbinical forum that works to prevent sexual harassment in the national-religious sector.

Rabbi Mordechai (Motti) Elon, a senior religious-Zionist figure, is suspected of sexual harassment and was duly suspended from all educational and rabbinical services four years ago, rabbis from the movement said in a statement Monday.

The rabbi entered the house of study on Tuesday afternoon and was received with warm welcomes and hugs from his supporters all around.

Rabbi Elon, surrounded by his students, will give an open lesson to the media representatives later Tuesday. He will not answer journalists' questions, but is slated to present his students with his interpretation of the suspicions raised against him by the Takana forum rabbis.

Alongside him are his family members, including Rabbi Benny Elon and Rabbi Emunah Elon.

For [Rabbi Elon], a special track was used: investigation by a secret, volunteer forum with no legal authority, called Takana, which in October 2006 reported the suspicions against Elon to the previous attorney general, Menachem Mazuz.

And what did Mazuz do? He did not ask to meet with the complainants, nor did he order the police to investigate.

Instead, he concluded, in his bureaucratic style, that "there is no way to handle these specific complaints on the criminal level." Or in plain English, there's no case.

Even before a verdict is announced, there are several lessons we should be learning from this whole sordid affair.

First, let us realize that nothing is impossible. No person, regardless of his or her title or training, is impervious or immune to temptation. This is particularly true regarding sexual conduct.

…Secondly, our first and foremost concern must always be for the victim.

…Finally, incidents such as these must cause each and every one of us to examine our own behavior. Are we careful to maintain high standards of moral behavior, disciplining ourselves to avoid doing anything which crosses the line between friendship and over-familiarity?

So let's examine ourselves honestly. What are you more shocked about? The preoccupation with "Rabbi Motti's" sexual tendencies, or the hints by members of the Takana forum whereby he sexually abused student?

…So here is a news flash: Fortunately, there are many more homosexual rabbis who live in secret and in denial than there are rabbis who sexually abuse their students or others.

The best comment on theRav Elon sex scandalcomes fromAdderabbi, who tries to put it all into context by quoting a passage on charismatic teachers from an absolutely brilliant new bookon Jewish education -- written, ahem, by my father, Paul Shaviv, principal ofTannenbaum CHATin Toronto, the largest Jewish high school, grade-for-grade, in North America (and the largest private day school in Canada).

As is customary in these parts, the Rabbi Mordechai Elon affair very quickly became the Takana affair. The public debate has shifted - as Elon's supporters wished - from shock at Elon's alleged sexual misconduct to a discussion of the legitimacy of Takana, an umbrella group of religious Zionist organizations aimed at combating sexual harassment by religious figures.

Two main contentions have been raised against Takana, which examined the allegations against Elon and recently revealed them to the public

It is almost impossible to put in words what Rabbi Mordechai (Moti) Elon meant to me and still means for thousands of youngsters and grown-ups who learned from him and took his advice at every step of their personal lives.

…But there is also a dark side to charisma and admiration, especially when they suffocate the natural rebellion of youth and individualism. This problem isn't only in yeshivas.

The pain and sense of crisis are great. Yet within all of this, we must not forget the real crisis: The distress of those who were hurt; the students who came to Rabbi Elon for a consultation session and found themselves in a blatantly sexual relationship. We must think about those children.

We must pray for them. Regrettably, it appears that this is not about just one or two students. There are more.

That students were willing to come forward in the first place may encourage other possible victims of prominent teachers and community leaders to do the same.

The action being taken in the face of these allegations demonstrates that the State of Israel and its laws take precedence over the image of any one man, and that the religious Zionist community isn’t one in which victims of wrongdoing are silenced or intimidated to protect the reputations of its icons.

For many years now, layer upon layer, we are being exposed to the religious Zionist state. “Our” children go to “our” schools, are educated in “our” youth groups, join “our” units in the army, attend “our” universities, and marry “our” daughters.

They live in the settlements, in “our” neighborhoods. And as it turns out now, some of them are also being tried by “our” legal system.

Their main aim, right from the beginning, should have been to bring about a proper investigation, by encouraging the boys to make official complaints and by pushing the AG - who, possibly, has his own case to answer.

He should not have left this to the rabbis; in fact, I would really like to know whether a factor in his decision not to pursue an investigation against Rav Elon was the knowledge that this highly sensitive case had already been 'taken in hand' by Takana.

The story of Motti Elon is at once shocking and expected. Shocking because of his squeaky-clean public image, but expected because his alleged misdeeds make for a familiar story: Powerful religious leader, vulnerable youth, sexual assault – been there, done that.

…So many of the attackers are famous, with worldwide reputations, sparkling smilesand enchanting charisma, that these qualities seem to be part of the profile. As if, the more famous the man is, the more I distrust him; the more celebrity status he has, the more likely I am to assume that he’s hiding his dark side.

Though Jewish law prohibits sexual relations between men as fundamentally wrong, dozens of prominent rabbis have now decided that the halachic prohibition does not involve negative treatment towards gay members of the religious community, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

Twenty important rabbis in the Religious Zionist camp signed a document of principles calling for a change in the approach to the community's gay members. Another 80 rabbis adopted the document.

The turnaround that has occurred in recent years in the religious public's view of homosexuality within the religious community is due largely to two Orthodox organizations for religious gays: Hod and Havruta.

Rabbi Menachem Froman of the community of Tekoa sparked uproar during a television program when he told a young religious lesbian woman who claimed that her parents do not welcome her and her partner on Shabbat, "I'm willing to talk with your parents. Give me the address, I'll talk and tell them 'parents, come and sit shiva for her, cry (for her)'."

Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau, who is considered one of the leading moderate figures in religious Zionism, slammed Froman for his statements during the television program and said

"This does not come from the Torah, it's not a halachic stance, it's Rabbi Froman's personal viewpoint. It's an extreme position which completely strays from the halachic way. It's a halachic deviation."

The community of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel is half a million strong and growing. They live in a parallel universe cut off from the modern world in tight-knit communities where everything revolves around religion. Only a few dare to abandon this life -- and the price for doing so is high.

The answer to the question of where this country is headed is hidden in table 8.11 of Israel's annual Statistical Abstract, which shows "Projections of Students in Primary Education" for the coming five years.

These are the figures: In the current school year, 47.5 percent of first-graders are either Arabs or Haredim (ultra-Orthodox).

The growth rate of the Haredi school system is 39 times greater than that of the state secular schools, and that of the Arab school system is 13 times greater.

These are not demographic forecasts, which can turn out to be false; these are children who have already been born and are awaiting their turn in the education system. This is reality.

There's surprising news for businesses seeking the custom of ultra-Orthodox Jews: Haredim are in no hurry to comply with the dictates of their leaders.

According to data collected from the 340,000 people representing the potential cellphone market in the Haredi community, only 96,000 bought kosher cellphones. Around 225,000 people were non-kosher, and many cellphone users owned two devices - one for show and the other to actually talk with.

Yoel Cohen, head of the communications department at Ariel College, said the issue was further proof of the difficulties facing Haredi leaders who want to enforce their will on the community.

Threats to Israel typically come in the form of rockets. But economists also see a profound risk to the state that is entirely within its control: its education system.

About half of Israel's pupils either attend Arab schools that are under-funded, or ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminaries where "secular" subjects such as English, science and mathematics take a back seat to biblical studies, or are completely ignored.

The Education Ministry's chief scientist sparked a furor among environmental activists and scholars Saturday with remarks questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming theory.

Prior to his appointment, Avital said in a video interview with Machon Meir, a religious-Zionist Jewish studies institute, "Another scientific field that is problematic is biology, or life and environmental sciences.

When your doctrine is based on Darwin's theory of evolution and its implications, you are standing on unreliable foundations - that is, there is no God, there was only something primeval, and then there are certain random developments which led to the apex of all creation, the human being.

Two groups are contending for the Ashdod hospital tender: Assouta Hospital, which is owned by Health Maintenance Organization Kupat Holim Maccabi, and a group comprised of Africa Israel (60%) and the non-profit organization Refua V'Yeshua (40%), which is operated by the Gur Hasidic sect, for which Litzman acts as representative in the Knesset.

The Gur sect is also involved in establishing an emergency medical center in Ashdod, which Litzman is seeking to include in the tender.

Bnei Brak Mayor Rabbi Yaacov Asher on Tuesday slammed National Council for the Child chairman Dr. Yitzhak Kadman after the latter said that the ultra-Orthodox city is known as Israel's pedophile capital.

In the recent court ruling compelling a chareidi non-profit organization to pay a NIS 5,000 fine for operating an illegal daycare center in a private home, there were also efforts to compel the Kfar Vradim Local Municipality to openly list its criteria for allocating land and permitting the construction of a mikve.

In an earlier report, YWN-Israel cited that the municipality leader, Sivan Yechieli, denied any discrimination regarding the construction of a mikve, stating that to date, no formal request has been received

The Miftach organization which seeks to develop employment for the chareidi sector, a quasi governmental agency working with the government and JOINT (JDC-Israel) reports a study indicates 93% of non-frum employers who hired chareidim state they would recommend their colleagues do the same.

A first ice cream chain for the ultra-Orthodox public is about to open inIsrael. The chain will be called "Zisalek" (from "sweetness" in Yiddish).

The entrepreneurs plan to open 25 branches this year in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh, Safed, Ashdod, Haifa and Beitar. The ice cream will be glatt kosher with a permit of the haredi community's court of justice.

In order to prevent boys and girls from sitting together at the ice cream parlor, as they do in the secular public, the stores will only offer takeaway services.

The publication of Rabbi Elon's alleged acts via the Internet is another step in the Internet's adoption by all segments of society. In the religious Jewish community, no more is its use being confined to disseminating Judaism. It is becoming a means to disseminate warnings, and administer punishment, too.

A new halachic ruling was made recently by the leader of the Lithuanian faction, Rabbi Yosef Elyashiv that effectively forbids adult women from seeking orthodontic treatment to straighten their teeth. According to the ruling, braces on one's teeth are considered a "partition" and therefore disqualify dipping in the ritual bath, also known as a mikveh.

After years without chief rabbis in the capital, the personal interest groups seem to dominate the playing field and what is actually best for the city has taken a backseat to each community’s agenda.

Dati Leumi officials are threatening to take their case to the High Court of Justice if the election committee membership is not altered to reflect what they believe is an accurate portrayal of the city’s population, a non-chareidi majority.

The decision has brought controversy to Orthodox authorities, who are divided as to whether their brethren can be eaten during Tisha B’Av and the Three Weeks, but the ruling eases the burden on kosher meat manufacturers, still struggling to keep up with demand after the Agriprocessors closure.